Mis-sold event tickets?

Manxman_in_exile

Hi


Three years on this forum and this is my first request for consumer help. (Should know better - I know!)


I'd be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction (eg MSE consumer guides, legislation, regs etc) so I can do my own research first. Once resolved, I'll come back with an update. If not resolved I'll post a fully detailed thread for further help!


We registered for (and bought) "priority allocation" tickets for a major international sporting event. We bought six tickets (2 x 3 consecutive sessions) of the "best" (ie most expensive) available based on the schematic ticket seating plan on the official website. Total cost about £600.


The first two sessions were great - no complaint. We were within 10 rows of the arena itself. On the third session our tickets directed us to row 73(!). We found ourselves at the uppermost row of the stadium, the only thing separating us from the outer skin of the stadium was a 2m concrete walkway. I estimate we were about 300ft (as opposed to 50ft on the first two sessions) from the action.


We felt these were neither "priority allocation" tickets nor the "best" tickets because (a) our view of the "big screen" was completely obscured by the supporting structure of the roof, (b) there were empty seats all around us, (c) the location of the seats was wholly different from the first two sessions, and (d) the location of the seats and their price did not correspond with the ticket seating plan on the website, which we relied on when purchasing them. Also we had to leave early to avoid queues leaving the uppermost parts of the stadium to catch our train.


To be honest, if we'd known we were going to be situated where we were, we wouldn't have bought the tickets at all for the third session, and would have saved the additional train fare. (To emphasise - the official ticket seating plan did not include our third session tickets within the most expensive category. It's difficult to tell from the schematic seating plan, but the seats allocated to us were either "Not available for sale" or were not the category we paid for. It was impossible to tell this from the tickets before arriving at the stadium for the third session).


We submitted a detailed (two page) complaint to the organisers. This included (a) a request as to how we had received the mis-described tickets that we had, and (b) how could they rectify this?


They replied surprisingly quickly with a "good will" offer of a refund of the cost of one of the two tickets for the session in question (ie £95). But no explanation of how we were allocated the tickets we received. This has driven my wife bonkers as we spend £££££££ supporting this British activity each year, and she now thinks any "priority allocation" schemes are a con. She also spent most of the third session crying.:( (Please don't anyone make fun of this - the seating allocation was both expensive and unacceptable and my wife was (and still is) really upset and angry about this).


We don't want "com-pen-say-shun" but would like a full refund for tickets that we wouldn't have bought if they'd been correctly described.


To emphasise again, we bought tickets based on the ticket seating plan schematic on the official website. That schematic clearly shows that the seats allocated to us for the third session were either "Not for sale" or an entirely different price band from what we thought we were buying. And we would not have bought any tickets other than the most expensive.


So how should we proceed on this, or do people think the "good will" offer is a good one?

gettingtheresometime

I think venues generally desigate areas & price their tickets accordingly.

In all the times I've booked theatre tickets (don't go to sporting events or music concerts) I've always been told what seats I was buying before I committed to the purchase.

Did you have something similar?

Also sometimes the best tickets on offer are the best available not necessarily the best seats.

I can appreciate that your wife may be angry & upset at the money spent but a little perspective is also called for

Manxman_in_exile

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I think venues generally desigate areas & price their tickets accordingly. Yes, there was a ticketing plan showing how the different price tickets were distributed around the stadium. I relied on this plan when deciding which tickets to purchase, or whether to purchase at all. If I had known we were going to be allocated tickets "outside" the seating plan, I would not have bought them.

In all the times I've booked theatre tickets (don't go to sporting events or music concerts) I've always been told what seats I was buying before I committed to the purchase. Yes. When we've bought theatre or cinema tickets online it is clear what you've bought. But this was a very large stadium (imagine London Olympic Stadium) with 60k+ seats. The "priority allocation" system did not specify where seats were. We had to rely on a schematic ticket seating plan. The seats allocated did not correspond with the schematic ticket seating plan. They were not what we thought we were buying.

Did you have something similar? No - as above.

Also sometimes the best tickets on offer are the best available not necessarily the best seats. Understood. In this case the "best" seats are always reserved for media commentators and competing team members etc. No problem with that. Our complaint is that we pre-registered for, and bought, "priority allocation" tickets to get the best of those remaining to the public, but we did not get tickets matching that description for the third session. And to be clear, there were no ticket pricing differentials for the three sessions we bought tickets for, so we expected the ticket allocations to be similar for all three sessions. They were not remotely similar. There were large price differentials for other sessions, but we did not buy tickets for those sessions.

I can appreciate that your wife may be angry & upset at the money spent but a little perspective is also called for I know. You'd best not meet my wife when she's upset. :rotfl:She's upset because she feels she was conned into buying priority tickets at a premium price that turned out not to be as described. It's a money saving site after all

Thanks for the reply. See above.


We spend a lot of money supporting British sport and are just disappointed with this experience. Including all costs we spent about £1000 over three days supporting this event. Our expected experience of the third session (after two great sessions) was extremely disappointing. The tickets allocated were not what we bought.

SuperHan

Did you complain while you were there? If there were empty seats, they may have been willing to move you.

You're probably going to need the CRA and the bit that talks about not as described. It may be that you are only entitled to a refund of the difference between what you paid and what the seats were actually worth.

Out of interest, what venue and what event was this?

Manxman_in_exile

There's nobody to complain to while you are there.


You can ask the event stewards (as I did) and they said "Well your ticket says block x, row 73, and your seats 20 and 21. that's where you are so there's no problem."


Well that's fair enough - they don't know what we've paid for - just what the ticket says.


And security is to tough at these events that it's very difficult to move around without stewards asking "Have you an allocated ticket and can I see it please?"


Oh - and we are quite old and respectful and don't take up seats not allocated to us. Stupid, I know, but that's the whole point of our complaint. We weren't allocated the category and price of seats we paid for.

Manxman_in_exile

SuperHan wrote: »

Out of interest, what venue and what event was this?

You can probably guess from what I've posted,


I would be very grateful if you and others would refrain from identifying the event while we are negotiating with the organisers.


Otherwise, thank you for the suggestions to look at.

warehouse

Yeah I think it's fairly obvious where. Their website says these type of tickets give you an option of where to sit from available tickets, so did you get that choice and see the seat numbers? They do give the impression that you'll know where you're sitting, I can only presume this didn't happen in your case.

Maybe checkout their website for further ammunition against them.

Manxman_in_exile

warehouse wrote: »

Yeah I think it's fairly obvious where. Their website says these type of tickets give you an option of where to sit from available tickets, so did you get that choice and see the seat numbers? They do give the impression that you'll know where you're sitting, I can only presume this didn't happen in your case.

Maybe checkout their website for further ammunition against them.

It may not be obvious where the venue is(?).


when the "priority allocation" tickets were purchased there was no indication where we would be seated apart from a schematic ticket seating plan showing where the different categories of tickets were situated. I based my purchasing decisions on that plan. I chose the most expensive tickets. The tickets we were allocated for session three did not comply with the ticket seating plan. They were totally different and poor quality - too far from the arena and a wholly obscured view of the "big screen".


We had no choice about ticket location which is my wife's major complaint. We would not have paid for the tickets allocated to us,if we had known where they were located. I suspect a common problem with "priority ticket allocation.

Manxman_in_exile

Sorry - just bumping this for any other views. I'd be grateful,,,

Fosterdog

Personally I don't think you have a claim for a full refund as you did stay for the event, so as already mentioned a refund of the difference between what it should have cost for those seats and what it did actually cost. If the refund of one ticket at £95 is more than that difference they are already being generous.

If the £95 is less than the difference then write back and ask for more. No more two page letters, they are just full of emotional bumph that is neither relevant nor easy to read. Keep it short, simple and to the point. As an example:

On x date we purchased y tickets for event z at a cost of £95 each. Tickets were promised to be in blocks a, b, c, d, or e based on the ticket value and priority booking. Tickets were actually for block n where the prices are only £x per ticket. I will give you 14 days to refund the difference between the two amounts or will seek to claim the money back through court.

That is all that is needed, anything that dragged that simple paragraph out onto two pages is ridiculous, it probably wasn't fully read and if it was it was then just passed around the office for everyone to mock you.

I can understand how frustrating this must have been but for your wife to still be upset and to have cried through the whole event is a little bit hysterical and not really a normal reaction. You both may have enjoyed the event more if she had engaged with it and made an effort.

I don't know what the event is, I dont really watch TV so even if this is something that has been widely reported on it has passed me by unless its the athletics which even I have caught snippets of. I know these big stadium events can be hugely expensive even for "bad" seats.

StaffieTerrier

Out of interest, did you pay the same amount for each session? I went to a large sporting event recently. We paid £50 each for very good tickets in one session but in the session after ours the same seats were £125 each.

Have you since checked the pricing and seat areas of allocation for that particular session? When we bought our tickets I looked carefully at the seating layout. The category of ticket we bought had 3 areas of seating. Two areas were really close to the front and the other high up in the top of the arena. We were lucky getting seats closer to the front.